


Sweet Beginnings

by chaosfay



Series: Ghanima and Solas [19]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Awkward Crush, Crushes, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, Secret Crush, Solavellan, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 17:02:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20696990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaosfay/pseuds/chaosfay
Summary: Solas is an intriguing boy and Ghanima is an interesting girl.





	Sweet Beginnings

Solas had been watching  Ghanima these past few weeks with more than a little interest. He excused this attention with wanting to see what she’s made of, wanting to know more about the  Dalish beyond what he’d already experienced, wanting to see learn more. That’s it, just learning. That she herself wanted to learn and know more is what threw him off balance.  Ghanima insisted she share her meal with him because it was one of the few times where she was genuinely left alone. He did notice everyone did give her space when she sat with him. Two mages, both elves, and one of them the Herald, it was momentary peace. She asked him more and more about the Fade, his dreams, what he knew and saw, nearly milking him of every detail he could offer. Her thirst for learning more made it more difficult to keep her at  arm's length . 

Solas found himself smiling when she did. She had so many different smiles and grins. The scar on her face didn’t take away from her beauty. Yes, now that he thought about it, she is certainly beautiful. She terrifies the nobles who come to see her in Haven, if only so they can say they saw her. Their masks do not hide their sudden shock when she gives them a full smile. They must be used to the elves serving them keeping their mouths shut. She doesn’t. Her teeth are long and sharp, dangerous, and certainly threatening. They try to recover, but they fail spectacularly. What would have been an hour-long lunch had become little more than a hello, goodbye, and may I speak to Josephine in private. Then there was her laughing smile. Oh, certainly as toothy, but her eyes were softer if not closed. She closed her eyes a lot when smiling. 

Solas sat alone now, in the cold night in Haven, the village dark  save for the small number of candles lit and the fireplaces giving soft light to the cottages. She had her own, on the far end near the entrance to what may as well be called a fort. He gazed in her direction as he stood there in the dark. He could be in bed, dreaming, exploring, seeing what’s around them, but he found himself imagining her standing beside him. She’d brought him a comfort here he still denied.  Ghanima radiated power, and not entirely from the anchor. Were those around her not so easily intimidated, they likely would spend as much time as possible near her. Power and heat, an absolute fire mage down to her bones. 

Solas didn’t want to admit it, but there was no rejecting a simple fact: he had developed a crush on  Ghanima and there was little he could do about it. 

* * *

Ghanima had been watching Solas, finding him equal parts interesting and irritating. He made his opinion of the  Dalish clear. Little more than disgust and disdain, generalizing them as so many  shems did. He may as well be referred to as such seeing as he didn’t fit the criteria of a city elf. City elves romanticize the  Dalish or feared them outright, but never showed such petty dislike for them. He never asked about her clan, clumping them up with all the others he’d encountered in his travels. For all his traveling he appeared to have learned little about the elves and focused only on himself. Information that benefited him and no one else. Had he ever encountered her clan and offered the knowledge he  possessed, he would have had an enraptured audience. She spent every meal with him, enjoying the fact no one bothered her, and asked as many questions as she dared without sound desperate or rude. She is the First of her clan and will bring back knowledge they need and want. After these meals she wrote down everything she learned in a journal she’d been keeping. 

Ghanima never missed him glancing at her. She is First in her clan and must be ever observant of every nuance in body language. How else could she possibly read those she would lead? He watched her as she spoke to and encountered the  shems .  Orlesians annoyed her to no end, and much to her delight they were very easily put off by even the simplest things. Every one of them offered more information to her than they likely realized. She had no idea they were unused to elves being so free until Josephine pulled her aside. She knew humans treated elves as little more than animals, but apparently showing strength and courage put them off. They had expected her to be meek, quiet, polite by their standards. Josephine and  Leliana sat her down, explained a few things, and encouraged her to continue being herself. How else to know what sort of reaction they may have in Val  Royeaux ? These nobles will spread rumors, fear, and may even back off as they come to their assumptions of who and what she is. Let them. Interesting to say the least. 

Ghanima spends her nights alone in her cottage. It feels like a kind of wrong, to have so much space for one person, all of it alien to her. She wants to be outside, to be home with her clan, to not be here in this cold and poorly insulated excuse for a house. The fireplace did little to block the drafts. Thankfully her own body heat is enough to bring comfort under the wool blankets. This place is so wrong, walled in and permanent. She imagined herself back home, tried to remember the smell of  halla and greenery, the sounds of people whispering in the night. Instead she’s here, alone, with no one to comfort her. She’d love to talk into the night with Solas, but his looks as of late had been more than just observations of her. It was odd, his posturing, the way he forced his body just a little further away. His posturing made things a little too clear for her, and  Ghanima still has no idea how she feels about it.

Ghanima doesn’t want to admit it, but there was no rejecting a simple fact: Solas had developed a crush on her and she enjoyed it.

**Author's Note:**

> I may add more chapters later. Please forgive the typos; I have no beta nor can I proofread my own work.


End file.
